After decades of working with anxious children and teens, I have two unshakable truths: families MUST be involved in treatment and anxious patterns are shifted through experiential learning. Working with the FOUR critical concepts to manage anxiety in families and the SIX patterns that must be interrupted, this workshop will describe HOW to create active, engaging assignments for families to do between sessions and describe the TEN favorites that I return to again and again.
Anxiety destroys the normal enjoyment of life through the fear, worry, obsessive thinking and avoidant behavior that anxious people experience. Simple activities like going to the grocery store, taking a child to her first day of school, or meeting a friend for lunch trigger a barrage of frantic “what ifs.” This demonstration will explore the subtleties of working with this pervasive category of disorders, and will introduce a powerful, integrative therapy model.
In this workshop, East and West blend, intertwine, and approach anxiety symptoms in a creative way. Eva from Germany, with her masterful practice in Satir somatic modeling, combined with Wei Kai from Taiwan, with his mindful practice in Tai Chi and Taoism hypnotherapy, will create a new model in treating anxiety. We both learned Ericksonian approach for years, and utilized various somatic movements to help self regulation, and increase self steering competencies in challenging times.
Joseph Wolpe (1985) begins with Santiago who has a history of experiencing strong feelings of anxiety and discomfort during social situations. Questioning reveals that these problems are most intense when he is in situations in which he experiences a loss of control. Wolpe uses imagery and desensitization to diminish feelings of anxiety.